Hillary Clinton’s 10 Missteps in the 2016 Election

Des Moines, Iowa, USA – June 14, 2015: Democratic candidate for President Hillary Clinton speaks to a group of over 700 supporters at the Iowa State Fair Elwell Family Food center in Des Moines, Iowa on Sunday, June 14, 2015.

Much like a heavyweight boxing match-up, the underdog Donald Trump utilized an unorthodox style to handily beat the Washington, D.C. establishment, the media, and Secretary Hillary Clinton for the championship belt—the presidency.

But how did Hillary lose the election that she was so heavily favored to win?

Here’s what happened

While Trump didn’t have extensive policies that drilled down into specifics, he simply spoke about the economic hardship that many Americans have experienced in the last eight years.

All Americans, from the inner city to rural farmlands, share a common need for decent paying jobs, educational options through school choice, access to affordable healthcare, and stable economies to foster small business growth, as well as a desire for national security and safety in local communities.

In 2012, America gave President Obama another chance to address these concerns by re-electing him to a second term, since his first term was plagued by the aftermath of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. However, many Americans believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction, financially and socially.

The last couple of months have shown that economic conditions are not getting any better, despite rosy economic reports promulgated from Washington, D.C., and the new enrollment period for Obamacare raised doubts about affordability for Americans based on soaring premiums coupled with high deductibles.

The social unrest and unease that many Americans face helped Trump win, however, Secretary Clinton and her cohort’s made some critical missteps, which helped aid Trump’s victory.

Let’s take a closer look as to how Hillary lost this election.

Hillary’s Missteps:

1. Assumed the election was in the bag:

For Clinton’s campaign, it was incomprehensible that a person with no political experience, no military experience, no ground game, a self-funder, an offensive reality TV show host, and other negatives could beat her. So, she took the competition too lightly.

But, Trump appealed to a large demographic, despite his offensive comments, evangelicals overwhelmingly voted for him by a margin of 81% to 16%. And Trump outpaced Gov. Mitt Romney for the black and Hispanic vote at 8% and 29%, respectively.

While Trump was making an economic pitch to black voters by talking about jobs, safe communities, and school choice, Hillary focused on characterizing Trump as a bigot, misogynist, and his supporters as deplorable. Well, this tactic didn’t work for Hillary because Trump won more black votes than Romney did in 2012.

3. Unable to galvanize voters to support her platform:

Despite being endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and adopting key elements of his platform, Hillary could not inspire enough voters to support her in battleground states like Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania where the margin of Trump’s victory ranged from two to four points.

4. Unable to decisively beat Trump in all three debates:

Hillary’s campaign was never able to deliver a knockout blow even when given the opportunity. For example, in the third debate when Hillary was asked a question about her 30 years of experience, she touted being a lifetime advocate for women and children.

Some believe that in that debate, she squandered a huge opportunity to highlight any substantive accomplishments as senator and secretary of state, however, when you examine her record of accomplishments there is no legislation that she sponsored as senator that had material significance and no foreign relations treaty or agreement that was a success during her tenure as secretary.

5. 270+ days without a press conference:

Hillary went more than nine months or 270+ days without holding a press conference amid growing concerns about her scandals and rigged Democratic primary. Perhaps she would have garnered more support and built up a political escrow account if she had held press conferences during the long drought of open questions from the media. During the same period, Trump took advantage of earned media and actively engaged the press.

In the final weeks before the election, Hillary’s campaign rallies had entertainment star power that provided a spark to ignite voter turnout for the candidate. But the effort failed to motivate voters to the polls and made it evident that the star-studded ensemble was not stronger together. Despite the endorsements from iconic figures, it wasn’t enough and conveys a subtle message that Trump is either that good of a politician, or Hillary is that bad of a candidate.

7. Didn’t play by the rules in the primary:

Remember those days in school when you stayed up late studying and wished you had a better idea what was going to be on the test. If you were able to get the exam ahead of time, it would be called cheating because it would give you an unfair advantage over your classmates. That’s what Interim DNC Chair Donna Brazile did for Hillary by giving her questions for a CNN debate ahead of time so that Hillary could draft scripted answers opposed to extemporaneous responses. This gave Hillary an unfair advantage over primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Additionally, former DNC Chair and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz went to great lengths to rig the primary against Sanders in unprecedented ways. If that wasn’t enough, the Democrats were in a state of flux that led to Wasserman-Schultz resigning as DNC Chair after the emails were revealed through WikiLeaks, which angered many Sanders supporters.

Lastly, the primary race between Clinton and Sanders was very competitive, but some voters felt that their votes did not count because of the insurmountable lion share of superdelegates pledged to Hillary from the start of the election cycle. Therefore, Sanders never had a legitimate chance to win the primary.

8. Weak connection to millennial voters:

Sanders charm and message connected with millennials in the primary but that didn’t transfer to Hillary in the general election. Over 1 million millennials didn’t go to the polls to cast a vote for Hillary. Although Hillary won the popular vote, she narrowly lost key Electoral College votes in states like Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

9. No plausible response to WikiLeaks:

The slow drip of WikiLeaks email discovery annoyed many voters, even Republicans. However, Hillary and her campaign team failed to have any answers to combat the onslaught of emails and related issues stemming from the questionable communications, which left it up to many voters to fill in the blanks.

10. Relied too much on “Never Trump” movement:

While the Never Trump movement was evident on blogs, Twitter, and media soundbites, it never gained enough traction to make a difference at the polls. Moreover, Hillary did not stay on message as she should have to overcome her negatives that stemmed from WikiLeaks regarding her emails and Clinton Foundation pay-to-play scheme. Ultimately, Trump’s negatives were not enough to drive Hillary’s constituents to the polls in the states that were trending blue.

So, we have President-elect Trump to lead the nation for the next four years, much to the dismay of Democratic supporters of all ages, creeds, and ethnicities who have taken to the streets in emotionally charged marches and demonstration against Trump. Despite Hillary echoing first lady Michelle Obama’s statement from the 2008 campaign, “When they go low, we go high,” some of these protests have involved vandalism and violence.

Hopefully, Democrats will soon recover from this shocking loss and let reality set in that Donald J. Trump is our 45th president-elect.

The views and opinions expressed on this website are solely those of the original authors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Black Enterprise.

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This article was written by John Burnett, an Urban Financial Freedom Fighter. John has over 20 years of executive experience at some of the world’s top banks and business information companies. He is an adjunct professor at Hampton University and Metropolitan College of New York. John is a strategic adviser to New York Republican State Committee.

One of the most fair and honest objectives I have read from either side. Well done! Sometimes in life, its the person with the ‘most fight’ that wins. I expected Hillary to have had more fight this time around because she had lost the bid in 2008. She might even have had the fight this year had she run against stronger candidates in the DNC selection process. You practice weak, you perform weak.

Hi Dbatim: Hillary had no fight because she had bad advice on how to fight. Also, she didn’t have a message that spoke to all Americans even when she tried to use parts of Bernie’s message — it wasn’t authentic.

Cogent, concise, and informative. I agree with all that was written. I would also include the Democratic candidate‘s failure to empathize with the voters who eventually voted for Trump out of their own sense of shame and failure. Much has been written on the subject. Calling people in pain, a basket of deplorables, was a open window into her feelings about Trump supporters. They in turn, came out in large numbers to vote against her.

Hi Goodman, thanks for the compliments and insight. You are right…Hillary failed to connect with middle of America. Feel free to share the article on social media and sign up to receive an alert when I post new articles. Thanks again

WOW!! Someone please get tis article in the hands of her campaign, and the news media. They have spent the past few days blaming her loss on every thing else. Her arrogance and disdain for the every day American was very evident, and frankly, it became very frustrating for me as time went on. One can only wonder why she spent precious time canoodling with her friends in high places, instead of actively seeking out the voters who ultimately would determine the results. MSM was so blatantly in the tank for her, they threw objectivity out the window. Let us not talk about the underhanded things that went on, just to get this woman to the finish line. Unfortunately, what it said to the American people was that she was above the law, and that is one thing we all know is not tolerated in this country.
I am ready, as I know a lot of people are, to move on. I pray for the Lord to bless Mr. Trump, and give him wisdom. That is the best we can do now.

Great overview…nice and succinct! Then I add “#11”, which is not an reason for the loss butt an observance/prediction. #11 THE PRESS PREDICTIONS: Every time the press said “Trump has done the wrong thing” or “This will be Trump’s downfall”, etc. it proved out to be incorrect, including their predictions on election night (which started to fade around 10:30 p.m.) So now as the press predicts the failure of Trump’s cabinet and other appointments I can only feel confidant that it must be going pretty well…huh?

It reminds me of when I was embarking on the beginning of my professional career (as a lowly team leader). I had one of the worst managers of my career. He predicted my professional failure while constantly chiding me along the way. After leaving his team, as I advanced my positions in the corporation I used him as a “reverse bellwether”. Whenever confronted with any weighty professional decisions. I always asked myself “What would he do?” and then I did the exact opposite. This resulted in me retiring as a Managing Director 25 years later. So God bless the ignorant press, and God bless my ignorant manager too!

The Democrats had always thrown shade in our direction. Black Lives Matter’s founders put in writing their “rejection” of us because their stated agenda was “LGBTQ” issues. In June 2016, Donald Trump was the only one willing to listen to us. We explained to Mr. Trump that we had been voting almost 50 years “straight” Democrat and our situation remained the same or worst.

First, Mr. Trump issued an online video that addressed our plight. Next he went to Michigan and then took the message to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Thereafter, we packaged the visual optics and shared his fight against the “status quo” with black America. And, in late August 2016, we outlined the grassroots plan that defined demographics, targeted groups, and the available tools to grow an arsenal of black Trump supporters. We had to work night and day to control the message and Mr. Trump’s “Plan for Black America” as a campaign strategy to change the conversation when Mr. Trump slumped in the polls.

When “sh*t hit the fan” in October 2016 and everyone started to run from Mr. Trump we suggested a “writing,” a “NEW DEAL” proposal for black America to put things back on track. Donald Trump owes his victory to “predominately black Democratic strongholds of Pennsylvania” who were convinced to give Mr. Trump 31 percent more votes than the previous Republican Party presidential candidate. African Americans like Todd Elliott Koger also helped convinced 130,000 blacks in Pennsylvania and hundreds of thousands more in various other states to boycott our traditional Democratic Party vote this election.

Mr. Trump’s “margin of victory” is realized when you combine this with an increase of “Obama white voters” in Wisconsin and Michigan voting Trump in 2016. Trump won Pennsylvania by 1.1 percentage points (68,236 votes), Wisconsin by 0.9 points (27,257 votes), and Michigan by 0.2 points (11,837 votes). If Clinton had won all three states, she would have won the Electoral College 278 to 260. She fell short in all three.

I don’t know if it’s just me or if everyone else encountering issues with your blog. It appears as though some of the written text within your content are running off the screen. Can somebody else please provide feedback and let me know if this is happening to them as well? This could be a problem with my web browser because I’ve had this happen before. Many thanks